


Tea Party at the End of the World

by Cait_Sidhe



Series: 1000 Lives [3]
Category: Kingdom Hearts (Video Games)
Genre: Crack Treated Seriously, Creepy, Dark Sora (Kingdom Hearts), Immortality, M/M, Not Canon Compliant - Kingdom Hearts III Re Mind DLC, POV Aqua (Kingdom Hearts), POV Sora (Kingdom Hearts), POV Third Person Limited, POV Yen Sid (Kingdom Hearts), Post-Canon, The Final World (Kingdom Hearts)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-01
Updated: 2021-03-01
Packaged: 2021-03-14 01:48:19
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,899
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29785326
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Cait_Sidhe/pseuds/Cait_Sidhe
Summary: Follow-up to "1000 Lives" story.Aqua and Terra, during their search for the missing keyblade wielders, go visit the Castle of Death to speak with the Goddess in hopes that she'll have information on their whereabouts. There, they discover the last thing they'd expect...
Relationships: Riku/Sora (Kingdom Hearts)
Series: 1000 Lives [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2175690
Comments: 2
Kudos: 9





	Tea Party at the End of the World

**Author's Note:**

> Me: "Probably won't have another entry to this series for quite a while, got other stuff to work on."  
> Also me: *starts writing another the next day, posts it a week later*
> 
> (Note: major spoilers if you haven't read "1000 Lives")
> 
> This is a follow-up that takes place a year after the ending, focused on those remaining of the side of Light.
> 
> Title is based on the song title "Party at the End of the World" by MCR. Lyrics are unrelated, just wanted to keep the theme of using their songs as chapter/fic titles for this series.

Yen Sid sat stoically at his desk, elbows perched upon it and fingers touching in a display of calm thoughtfulness fitting for an elderly wizard of his stature. The Mysterious Tower had alerted him to the visitors currently ascending the stairs, which apparently had decided to be in a playful mood as they were leading the group in circles and lengthening to a ridiculous amount.

“Please allow them in,” Yen Sid said to the empty air. The Tower heard him, and the group finally reached the study. As they did so, another group—or rather, couple, in the sense there were two of them—entered the Tower; this time, the stairs made the trip unusually short, respecting Yen Sid’s wishes for once.

Yen Sid observed the five people as they all entered the study simultaneously: the Keyblade Masters Mickey, Aqua, and Terra, along with the mage Donald and knight Goofy. Oh, and Jiminy Cricket appeared to be there too, sitting on Donald’s head; he was too small for Yen Sid to sense entering the Tower. Perhaps that ought to be fixed, in case the future brought enemies the cricket’s size.

“Master,” Aqua greeted with a small bow. The others followed suit.

Yen Sid nodded in acknowledgement. “Now, you all know why we are gathered here today,” he stated, waving his hand to summon some chairs.

Terra nodded as he and the others sat, then said, “The same reason as every month.”

“Correct.” One year to date, all but one of the youngest generation of keyblade wielders had vanished immediately after defeating Xehanort for the upteenth time. The final one, Ventus, had vanished not long prior, after merging with his dark half, Vanitas; he had run off with no memories from after the split, and possibly without some from prior to it, too. Ever since, Masters Terra and Aqua had been travelling the worlds in pursuit of them, while Donald, Goofy, and Mickey managed things from Disney Castle, trying to find clues via technology when not attending to their usual castle duties and forwarding any leads to Terra and Aqua. “Does anyone have any updates?” Yen Sid opened.

“Yesterday we ran into Ven,” Aqua quickly informed them, with an air of professionality. 

“Oh gosh!” Mickey interjected in surprise, not at all formally, which always irked Yen Sid, but the mouse was on his level now so reprimanding him for it would be inappropriate. “Didja talk to him? I see he’s not here…”

“Unfortunately he ran off again, into a dark portal,” Terra informed them grimly. ”He did talk to us a little beforehand though… didn’t say much, but he did seem to remember us at least.”

Aqua continued, “From what we could gather, it seems he and Vanitas truly have merged, and he’s started to remember things from both in addition to his older memories. When we requested he come back with us, he laughed and left.”

“I see,” Yen Sid said. He considered that for a moment. “I think, perhaps…” he had to word this carefully. “I believe it may be best to let him be for now.”

Aqua and Terra didn’t seem surprised. The latter said, “That’s what we were thinking too.”

“Our Ven is clearly gone. The only way he’ll come back is if it’s on his own,” Aqua added. “We’ll gladly welcome him back if he does, but trying to force him is useless.”

“You two are strong,” Mickey commented.

Yen Sid nodded in agreement. “I concur. Now, is there anything you learned about the others?”

“Unfortunately no,” Aqua replied.

“Nothing on our front either,” Mickey said, voice laced with disappointment. “I’m starting to think that the Death Goddess must have done something to them, rather than them simply hiding like we initially thought.”

“That is certainly a possibility,” Yen Sid noted. “Perhaps we ought to look further into that.”

“Is there a way to visit this Goddess?” Goofy wondered.

“If she did anything to them, I’ll murder her!” Donald asserted, or at least that’s how Yen Sid interpreted the duck’s warbled words.

“Now, Donald, murdering people is not morally correct,” Jiminy chided; he took his job as conscience very seriously.

“There are exceptions!” the duck retorted. “And she’s not a person, she’s a death god who tricked Sora and the others into killing over a thousand people!”

“That is true,” Jiminy mused, placing his hand on his chin as he pondered that.

“Gawrsh, do you really think we’ll have to kill her?” Goofy asked worriedly.

“Before we consider that,” Yen Sid interjected, “We must ascertain if she had anything to do with their disappearance. Let us go to the library; perhaps there is a way we can contact her.”

♦♥♦♥♦♥♦

Sora lounged on the leather couch in the newly-constructed foyer of the Castle of Death, lazily watching Naminé paint clouds on the cyan ceiling. She was using a ladder, even though technically she could simply fly up there; according to her, standing while painting was much more stable and produced better results than trying to hover in the air while doing so. Sora was quite pleased with how it was turning out; Kairi had suggested they do some renovations, noting that the gothic-style castle was extremely gloomy, especially as being in a realm of eternal night didn’t help with that. Thus, the group living there unanimously decided to add some modernity and brightness to it.

Said group consisted of Sora, newly appointed God of Death, and his six newly-turned-reaper friends: Riku, Kairi, Naminé, Xion, Roxas, and Lea. Well, perhaps it wasn’t so “new” anymore; what had it been, a year now? Time was difficult to keep track of when there wasn’t a sun to track the days and one didn’t need sleep. Perhaps they should invest in some of those fancy clocks that noted the time in multiple worlds.

Sora was pulled from his thoughts by a loud blaring alarm. He gave a shout and covered his ears with his hands in response; Naminé fell right off the ladder and landed on her butt, although Sora wasn’t worried despite the height of the fall—after all, reapers were notoriously difficult to injure by conventional means.

“What is that?” Roxas shouted, rushing in from the next room over, where he’d been installing some light fixtures—they may all be able to see in the dark, but that didn’t mean that light wasn’t welcome.

“Hell if I know!” Sora responded over the blaring alarm.

Xion then rushed in with the answer. “That weird device in the hallway is making the sound; I think it’s some type of phone!” she informed them.

The group hurried out of the room and passed by a few other rooms until they reached a large hallway; along the wall, atop a grey square pedestal, there was a basin of red hopefully-water emitting the sound, which actually did sound a bit like a ringtone Sora realized as he adjusted to the shock of the noise. So… this thing was a phone? There were so many strange objects around the castle that no one knew how to work.

“How do we answer it?” Sora wondered as the rest of the castle’s inhabitants—Kairi, Lea, and Riku—joined them.

“Maybe you need to touch the water?” Roxas wondered, brazenly sticking his entire palm on the surface.

The thing quieted, and words formed on a small black panel in the corner of the pedestal in a script Sora didn’t recognize.

“Anyone happen to read whatever that is?” Lea wondered. Probably not, considering most of them only knew the languages Sora knew, as they’d been formed from him, and as far as he knew neither Kairi nor Riku spoke any language other than Basic and their native island language; translation magic did exist, but unfortunately that only worked on audio, not visual (which made things especially difficult in worlds like San Fransokyo, where they used completely different letters; usually reading it aloud when it used the same letters allowed understanding, but only if one could read it).

“I did see a book about it in the library,” Naminé recalled. “It was in this language, teaching Basic. There’s probably a letter key in there; then we can sound it out and use the translation magic!”

As Naminé did that, everyone else returned to work while Kairi and Xion volunteered to make dinner for them; technically none of them required food anymore, but it was still nice to share meals and eat (especially because you didn’t have to worry about nutrition! Sora loved that—he could eat sweets for days and be totally fine). By the time it was ready and everyone was seated at the extravagant dining table they’d imported from Paris (the Goddess had had none, since apparently she didn’t partake in the wonder of food), Naminé had finished the translation.

“It says, ‘One missed call’,” Naminé announced, and everyone collectively sighed, both at the fact that it thankfully wasn’t anything bad and also at the fact that they’d probably missed something very interesting—after all, the lesser reapers had other ways to contact them, so it could only be someone new.

♦♥♦♥♦♥♦

“Thank you so much for this,” Aqua told Fairy Godmother. “I can’t tell you how much we appreciate this; I know you don’t use your magic for just anyone.”

“Oh, but you aren’t just anyone, dear!” Fairy Godmother assured Aqua. “Nor are those you seek out!”

“Are you sure you can’t tell us anything about them?” Terra asked. 

“I’m afraid I can’t, dears,” Fairy Godmother said with a sigh. “I’m bound by oaths; helping you this much is already pushing it.”

“We understand,” Aqua accepted. It was clear the fairy knew something, possibly everything, but ancient magic prevented her from revealing too much to mortals. “Again, thank you so much,” Aqua reiterated.

“You are very welcome,” the fairy said amicably. “Now, are you ready?” As she said this, Fairy Godmother created a glowing white portal. “Step through here, and you’ll be at the gates of the Castle of Death. There, you will find the one you wish to speak to.”

Aqua vaguely noted that Fairy Godmother hadn’t specifically mentioned any names during their entire conversation, but dismissed it as simply being the way she spoke. After all, it was the Goddess of Death they wished to see. Upon receiving no results from the various ways books said the Goddess could be contacted, it was decided that someone should go directly to her lair to speak with her. As a large crowd would probably be intimidating and make the Goddess suspicious, it was deemed that only Aqua and Terra would go as all they wanted to do was speak with her (although they would still be on alert in case she did try something). Thus, they contacted Fairy Godmother, one of the only beings they knew who could traverse planes.

“Remember; when you wish to return, simply activate the stone I gave you, and I’ll come get you!” Fairy Godmother reminded them.

“Understood.” Aqua took a deep breath and stepped through the portal, Terra following.

The two emerged into a world of eternal night. They stood atop solid water—no, a thin layer on top of salt flats, Aqua recalled reading—which perfectly reflected the starry, moonless night above them, giving the feeling that they were standing in the sky. The only feature in view was a gigantic castle surrounded by a high metal spike-tipped fence, the gate of which Aqua and Terra stood in front of.

“Should we just go up to the door?” Terra wondered.

“Well, the gate’s wide open, so I’d assume so,” Aqua decided.

The two strode through the gate and down a grey cobblestone path; the area around the castle was surprisingly grassy, the grounds full of trees and plants—none of which Aqua recognized and appeared to be quite ghastly, colored in shades of reds, purples, and blacks. Even the grass looked a reddish-grey, and the trees were black with crimson leaves; Aqua suppressed a shiver at the uncanny landscape, and tried to not react to the creepy statues strewn about that were carved by rocks scarily similar to the glowing blue ones from the Realm of Darkness.

The castle itself was no less intimidating, a tall gothic monstrosity with tall twisted spindles, constructed of dark grey stone just enough removed from the black of the sky to make out the shape. Unexpectedly, lights did shine from some of the windows; for some reason Aqua expected it to be pitch-black.

CA-CAW! Aqua jumped in surprise, resisting crying out as she turned to the sound; a crow on a bird bath? A crow with four crimson eyes… It looked at the two curiously, not attacking or anything, so Aqua continued on, quickening her pace as she noticed more of the uncanny birds in the trees; behind her, Terra did the same.

Finally, the two reached the door, which was atop a small set of stairs and stone deck; Aqua sighed in relief.

“I’m starting to think this wasn’t the best idea,” Terra said nervously. “Maybe we should turn back.”

Aqua shook her head. “No,” she asserted. “We’re here now; we need to follow through.” Aqua grabbed the door knocker, which was in the shape of some sort of demon head, and knocked thrice, the sound echoing eerily in the eternal night.

A few minutes later, as Aqua was wondering if she should knock again, the door opened. A black-haired girl sporting small horns, a lancelate tail, and two bat-like wings appeared in it; her eyes widened and she made an indecipherable squeak before abruptly closing the door again.

Aqua and Terra stared at the door for a moment, processing, before the latter asked, “Was that Xion?”

“Uh-huh,” Aqua confirmed absently. Xion? Why was Xion there? And why did she have demon features? Surely not…?

“I’m going to knock again,” Terra told Aqua, then did so.

“No one’s home!” came a shout from behind the door, which apparently Xion was now guarding.

Aqua frowned, becoming annoyed. “You know very well that’s not the case!”

“We’re here to speak to the Goddess of Death,” Terra called to her. 

“If she’s kidnapped you, we can help,” Aqua asserted.

“We—I mean, I haven’t been kidnapped!” Xion replied. “Just, please go!”

“We?” Aqua noted the slip. “Xion, are the others there too? What’s going on?”

There was quiet for a moment, and Aqua vaguely could hear whispers from behind the door; someone else had joined Xion.

“That’s not a very airtight door,” Terra commented quietly to Aqua, attempting to joke to ease the tension. Aqua ignored it.

Slowly the door creaked open again, this time revealing a blonde-haired girl in a white dress. “Please, come in,” Naminé greeted, gesturing inside. Aqua wondered if she was a demon too; Aqua knew the wings could be hidden, as Sora had around them over a year prior, and as Xion currently had done. “Sorry for the mess; we’re in the middle of renovating,” Naminé explained; as she closed the door, a small black cat slipped in.

Aqua’s eyes widened in surprise as she stood in the entryway of the castle, barely registering the cat rubbing around her legs; the aesthetic was entirely different from what one would expect based on the outside, the hotel-lobby-sized room decorated with bright cyan walls and domed ceiling with clouds painted on them. A round light in the center of the dome was clearly meant to resemble a sun. The walls had the start of tall sunflowers being painted along them. The floor was rough, clearly being prepared for the green carpet that was rolled against the wall.

“This is… different,” Terra commented, clearly also unsure what to think of the entry room.

“Yes, we figured the castle could benefit from a brighter design,” Naminé explained as Xion gave instructions to the cat, who then scampered off. “It wasn’t very visitor-friendly before; in fact, it was positively gloomy!”

“Yes,” Xion agreed. “It was depressing.”

“Okay, that’s all well and good,” Aqua said briskly, “but we’re not here for a tour. We’re—”

“You initially came here to speak to the Goddess,” Naminé interjected. “Because you wanted to ask about our whereabouts, correct?”

“Yes, that’s correct,” Aqua confirmed; she had forgotten how perceptive the blonde girl could be.

“But now you know our whereabouts,” Naminé continued.

“Yes, I suppose we do, at least for two of you. Could you explain what’s going on?” Aqua asked patiently, trying not to panic. The two were acting so casual about this! Were they enslaved? No, they appeared willing; something else was going on here… Aqua had a sinking feeling about it.

“Not yet,” Xion said. “I sent Sothoth to go tell Kairi to make some tea; talking about this in a half-finished entry room seems like it’d be uncomfortable.” Sothoth must be the cat, Aqua surmised, probably a supernatural one as it seemed to understand human language. “Follow me,” Xion told them, then started walking out of the room. 

“Unfortunately we haven’t finished installing the elevators, so I’m afraid you’ll have to walk up a few flights of stairs,” Naminé apologized.

Aqua and Terra followed, perplexed at the castle’s interior. It appeared to be a hodge-podge of styles, one very dark—clearly the older one, so probably what was being renovated away—and various brighter, more modern styles. Many of the doors they passed were open, revealing the most random decor possible, most still in progress; it appeared that they couldn’t decide on a single design for the castle so were just using them all. Modern, rococo, renaissance, rustic, it all was there. Some appeared more teenage in style, with posters of bands or cartoons along the walls—were they bedrooms? But there were no beds; maybe they hadn’t gotten around to putting those in. Other rooms seemed to be for hobbies, like an art studio and music room. 

Aqua pondered what this all could mean. Did the Goddess truly randomly decide to redecorate, or were the children in charge of such? Aqua definitely got the feeling that most of this had been designed by the missing teens, probably all doing their own thing. But why would a Goddess of Death decide to do such? Was she not in charge anymore? Then in that case, who was? Surely not… Aqua inwardly shook her head. No, that was impossible.

Finally, after basically a maze of corridors—why were the stairs in random places rather than straight upwards?—they reached their destination. It appeared to be the top floor of a spire, based on the small size, round walls, and conical ceiling with a half-installed skylight. The small room was painted yellow with blue swirls, and contained a table with chairs circling it, which it appeared that Riku and Lea had just finished setting for nine people—presumably the seven previously-missing wielders, Aqua, and Terra. Each place had a china teacup on a small saucer, as well as a small plate. A smaller table near it contained a teapot, along with a little jar of sugar and a small pitcher of cream.

Kairi then entered the room, carrying a tiered tray of mini sandwiches and cookies, which she placed in the center of the table; they were really going all-out with this meeting. Aqua wondered if they’d ever entertained guests before… well, the Goddess must have, but then where was she, and why that number of table settings… was there one less missing wielder here rather than all of them?

“Please, sit down,” Kairi instructed, as she and Lea did. Aqua and Terra followed, and the teapot magically hovered over to fill mugs, the sugar pot and cream pitcher following.

Aqua gave a start as the next person entered the room, her stomach doing a little flip, before she realized it wasn’t Ven, rather his lookalike, Roxas. Following him was Sora. Aqua then realized something other than their casual attitude was off—it had been a year, yet despite being teenagers none of them had appeared to have aged one bit, not even with hairstyle. The only difference was that they mostly wore more casual clothes compared to the magical clothing Aqua was used to seeing them in, mostly t-shirts and jeans, although Kairi appeared to be wearing chocobo-patterned pajama pants and Naminé still wore her signature white dress, although it was now covered in spots of paint.

Once everyone was seated, the kids all took sandwiches and treats to eat, so Aqua and Terra did the same after Kairi assured them there was nothing suspicious in them. If it were anyone else, Aqua would have been on alert at those words, but she trusted Kairi, even in light of what she and the rest of these kids had been up to the previous year. Hopefully they weren’t still murdering people.

“So, what are you here for?” Sora, sitting in Riku’s lap—ah, so there was one more seat, then, probably for the Goddess—asked, after a bout of surprisingly peaceful quiet where they all ate and drank. Aqua had almost forgotten they were here for a reason, and that it wasn’t a casual gathering like they’d sometimes have a couple years back—and in a way it was, albeit with the addition of Sora and absence of Ven.

“Well, we came here looking for all of you,” Aqua explained.

“It’s been a year,” Terra added, frowning now. “We’ve been looking all over, so thought maybe we’d ask the Goddess if she knew where you were, which I guess she does if you’re at her castle, right?”

Sora grinned, flashing fangs. “The owner of this castle definitely knows,” he stated ambiguously, not actually mentioning the Goddess. Was this castle not hers after all?

Aqua tried not to react to the fact that Sora still had fangs, meaning he was still a demon… well, honestly, they probably all were if they were here, Aqua realized. Xion even had briefly displayed the features to them before.

“So, why are you here?” Aqua wondered. “You fulfilled the deal; you should have returned. Why didn’t you?”

“We made a better deal,” Lea said simply.

“A better… deal…” Terra said slowly, voice caked with disbelief. “Your first deal didn’t go well, so you made another…?” Aqua had to agree; that didn’t make any sense at all. What could have been so tempting?

“Well, not with that Goddess,” Riku said casually.

“There’s more than one Goddess?” Aqua asked, becoming more confused. All their research said there was only one, unless they meant the deal was with a lesser god or demon.

“Well, he’s the God of Death, technically,” Roxas explained blithely. “Not Goddess.” Ah, so the Goddess must have a partner, Aqua surmised, like a king and queen of death.

“So, can we meet them, then?” Aqua wondered. “It seems awfully rude to have a party in their place without them knowing.”

“Oh, don’t worry, he knows,” Xion said, also very casually. Again with the lack of specifying Goddess… were they intentionally being obtuse? Why? Did the Goddess not exist anymore, instead replaced by this God? Wait… 

“Hold on a second,” Terra interjected, seemingly catching Aqua’s train of thought as he asked, “What happens when you kill the Goddess of Death?”

Sora grinned even wider. “Took you long enough to catch on,” he said, clearly holding back laughter.

Aqua felt her eyes widen. “You actually did kill her?”

“Yup,” Sora acknowledged.

“And took over her castle,” Terra concluded.

“That’s one way to put it,” Sora said, still being somewhat avoidant of the actual question in the air.

“So if she’s dead, who’s in charge now?” Aqua wondered, unable to hide her nervousness. “There must be someone… A God, right?” A God who knew already that they were here… no extra place setting for someone else, assuming the empty chair had been intended for Sora… all the lost wielders living in the castle… 

“You can’t guess?” Sora asked, a teasing lilt to his voice. He was apparently having fun with this; Aqua resisted rolling her eyes, nervousness replaced with irritation. Sora loved being dramatic, but this wasn’t the place. Or, maybe it was? Sora was clearly the one in control here.

“Just tell us,” Terra said, sounding annoyed as well.

“It’s you, isn’t it,” Aqua said tiredly to Sora, done with the games.

Sora laughed. “Took you long enough!” he declared, then grinned ferally and narrowed his eyes, manifesting long curved horns, a tail, and… six large devil-like wings.

Aqua gasped in shock at the display. She expected demon features, of course, but it was still shocking, especially as it was a much grander display than it had been a year prior. Before they’d been tiny broken wings and horns that were barely visible in his hair. Sora only looked even more delighted at her reaction, as well as Terra’s similar one, and the other young probably-also-demons laughed too.

Aqua felt herself blush. “Okay, we get it. Enough of the… drama…” she trailed, glancing around the table; all but the two visitors had demon features too, albeit only two wings each and smaller horns. Despite knowing who they were and knowing they wouldn’t hurt her, Aqua still felt a bolt of fear—most likely a natural human reaction to demons in general.

“Please look human again,” Terra said faintly. 

Surprisingly, they all complied, even Sora. “Too much?” the brunette said sheepishly, rubbing the back of his head. “I guess I got a little carried away,” he admitted, to Aqua’s surprise.

“Yes, you did,” Aqua agreed briskly, belatedly realizing that taking a chiding tone to the God of Death probably wasn’t a good idea, even if she did know him and he was more than ten years her junior. She decided she didn’t care and continued, “Now that your little display is over, would you mind explaining exactly how this happened?”

♦♥♦♥♦♥♦

“Sora is the new God of Death,” Aqua immediately announced upon stepping into Yen Sid’s study with Terra. Mickey, Donald, Goofy, and Jiminy were also gathered there, as the two had sent them a meeting request.

Yen Sid stared at Aqua, unsure how to react. “Could you repeat that?” he requested, unsure if he’d heard correctly—or rather, wishing he hadn’t.

“Sora is the new God of Death,” the blunette repeated. 

Yen Sid found himself at a loss for words. Sora, the God of Death? Of all the keyblade wielders for that to happen to… “May the gods help us,” he couldn’t help but whisper.

“Gosh,” chirped Jiminy, “I can hardly believe it.”

Terra responded, “I wouldn’t have believed it either if I hadn’t seen for myself. He even has the six demon wings, like the books showed the Goddess having.”

“And what of the Goddess?” Yen Sid inquired, although he was pretty sure he knew what must have happened to her; he could hardly imagine such a powerful being willingly ceding her throne to a teenager.

“Dead,” Aqua said simply, confirming Yen Sid’s suspicion. “Sora killed her after we beat Xehanort.”

“What about Riku and the others?” Mickey chimed in. “Are they—”

“All demons,” Terra explained, anticipating the question. 

“Oh gosh…” Mickey said, appearing dejected. 

“How?!” Donald squawked angrily. “Sora said everything would be fine after that!”

“In their eyes, everything is fine,” Aqua said grimly. “They all were turned willingly, and not a single one of them is unhappy with the results.”

“Yeah, they’re pretty much living it up in that castle,” Terra added. “I’m a little jealous.”

“Why does being dark always seem to come with having a castle?” Goofy wondered aloud.

Donald whacked Goofy with his staff. “We have a castle too, you dolt!”

“And so do we,” Aqua reminded Terra. “Even if we’re rarely there,” she acknowledged.

“Enough about castles!” Yen Sid interjected, a little more loudly than he had intended. “Let us get back to the discussion at hand. Terra, Aqua, please describe what you have learned.”

“There’s honestly not much more to describe,” Aqua told him. “They hosted a small tea party, and after their brief explanation we just caught up with each other. Casual conversation.”

“They’re renovating the castle,” Terra supplied unhelpfully—renovations were hardly the biggest concern.

“Did they mention anything of what specifically they’re in charge of and how they will manage it? That is a big role to play,” Yen Sid said. Too much responsibility for teenagers, in Yen Sid’s opinion. Being in control of death essentially meant they were in charge of the universe itself!

Aqua sighed. “Unfortunately no. They were intentionally obtuse about that.”

“I dunno about that,” Terra contrasted. “I think it’s more like they’re not sure what to do.”

Yen Sid considered that. “Yes, that is possible,” he concluded. “If the Goddess had been around for millennia, I sincerely doubt she would have had any manuals lying around on how to do things.” This was highly worrying; hopefully they would be able to figure things out! Yen Sid would normally suggest the Masters go try to help the teenagers, but he was certain the teenagers would never accept that.

“Then what do we do?” Donald squawked.

Mickey sighed. “There’s nothing we can do,” he concluded. “Is there?” he asked Yen Sid.

Yen Sid nodded gravely. “Correct. For now, it is best we leave them be, and hope that nothing bad comes of this.”

**Author's Note:**

> Well, that's never a good phrase to end things on, Yen Sid!
> 
> Now I'm serious about another entry not being for a while; I really do have to work on my WIPs and vampire series. 
> 
> If you have Twitter, I recently made one; my username is CaitSidhe4, and I've mostly been using it to retweet soriku stuff but plan to start posting updates on my writing there too.


End file.
